Warm water killing Alaska salmon

Unusually warm water temperatures and low river levels are killing salmon in the Matanuska and Susitna valleys. Hundreds of Arctic char, recently stocked by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, have also gone belly up in Campbell Point Lake, also known as Little Campbell Lake, inside Anchorage's Kincaid Park.

Habitat biologists are calling the conditions "almost a perfect storm," but don’t believe the die-offs will have lasting effects on fish numbers in Southcentral Alaska.

"It will have some impact but in the long term for species that return multiple age classes, I wouldn’t characterize it as a disaster," said Mike Bethe, Mat-Su area manager for the Habitat Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.